


Hekili Kamaboko (Thunder Cake)

by Onlymystory



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Thunderstorms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 16:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3699680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onlymystory/pseuds/Onlymystory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ya know how some days Steve is a batshit crazy Navy SEAL and some days he’s a puppy you just want to cuddle and protect from the world? This is a story about the latter.</p><p>Or thunderstorms scare Steve so Grace and Danny team up to make him feel better with their secret thunderstorm survival method.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hekili Kamaboko (Thunder Cake)

**Author's Note:**

> Set in a vague hand-wavy canon-divergent AU wherein various things from all five seasons so far may have happened but not all and not in the canon order. Because its storming right now and this was on one of those lists of AU prompts and because thunder cake is the best.
> 
> I just looked up the Hawaiian words for thunder and cake to make the title, so if there are better ways to say it, let me know and I'll change the title. 
> 
> Basically whenever Steve has that vulnerable puppy look on the show, I need all the fic of Danny being cuddly and protective.

The first loud clap of thunder in the distance makes Danny grin and sends Grace bounding into the living room with a cry of “We can make the cake, right, Danno?!”

In three years of living in Hawaii, Danny can count on one hand the number of times there’s been a genuine thunderstorm. The one approaching will make four. He learned early on that while Hawaii makes Seattle look like a dry paradise when it comes to rain showers, thunderstorms are extremely rare. It was initially one of the many things that he missed from New Jersey, and now its one of the few things he hasn’t been able to sort into the nostalgia box in his mind.

He’s got Grace for a long weekend though and the Five-0 front has had a quiet week. Danny knocks on wood even as he thinks that, since he has no intentions of jinxing his weekend. Its a little bit odd that Steve hasn’t called yet, with his usual terrible excuses for why Grace and Danny should come over. For Danny, its just understood that when Grace comes over, he gets her that first night and then Steve claims both their attention for the rest of the time.

Which Williams family member is happier about that is an oft-argued subject between Danny and his daughter.

Speaking of whom, he turns to Gracie now. “Thunder always means thunder cake, monkey. Go get the book and I’ll get the ingredients out.”

“Danno,” says Grace, hands on her hips like he’s being a moron.

“Yes?”

“It’s Saturday,” she explains. “We have to make thunder cake with Uncle Steve.”

Danny smiles. “I suppose we do. Alright, go get your Steve bag and put the book in it so we can go.” Its probably a little ridiculous that Grace comes over with two bags now, one with her stuff for his place and one with extra toys, swimsuit, and a change of clothes for Steve’s. But while Grace gathers up what she deems necessary for the day, he puts all the necessary ingredients for the cake in a bag and pulls the six pack of longboards that he bought yesterday out of the fridge to take as well.

~

“Danno, why is Uncle Steve’s house dark?” asks Grace as they pull up the driveway.

“I don’t know, monkey,” replies Danny, a little perturbed himself. He’d texted Steve as they were leaving, which usually results in Steve waiting out front when they arrive. The storm would probably keep him to the porch--though who knows with Steve’s particular brand of crazy--but the fact that the house is dark is concerning. “Stay in the car for a minute,” directs Danny, and he makes his way alone up to the house.

The door’s unlocked so he walks in and can see a couple lamps on low, the heater working and the coffee pot still slightly warm. Nothing seems dangerously wrong. A burst of lightning across the horizon lights up the living room and another thunderclap sounds, so Danny goes back out to get Grace. They set their things down on the couch for a minute. “C’mon, let’s go see if Steve’s upstairs. Maybe he took a nap.”

As it turns out, Steve is actually in bed, a fact that thoroughly surprises Danny, despite his lack of theories as to what was going on.

“What are you doing?” he asks, flicking on the desk lamp. Between the glow of the stormy skies outside and the lowlight of the lamp, he can see Steve clearly now. He’s curled up in a ball, seeming smaller than Danny’s ever seen him, underneath a blanket with only the top half of his head poking out. Considering Steve seems to exist on about five hours of sleep, runs so hot he’s only half-clothed most of the time, and loves spending time with Grace almost as much as Danny does, the entire situation is throwing Danny for a loop.

Steve mumbles something indecipherable.

“Are you sick?”

As he’s moving towards the bed to check for a fever--and he might have to check himself for one as well--a particularly loud boom breaks across the room, the storm directly upon them from the sound of the thunder, and in the midst of it, Steve whimpers and curls in tighter on himself.

Danny gapes. “Are you...are you scared of thunderstorms?”

“Danno!” hisses Grace reproachfully.

He doesn’t even mean to mock. He just didn’t think Steve was scared of anything. But as the rain starts and the lower rumbles of thunder continue, Steve shivers and his eyes have that haunted look that Danny absolutely hates and he kind of forgets all other questions. “Oh babe,” says Danny in a quiet voice. He sits on the edge of the bed and reaches out a hand to stroke Steve’s hair.

Steve sniffles and leans into the gesture and if Danny wasn’t already in love with the man, that little expression of utter trust would have sent him over the edge. “How come you never told me about this fear?” he asks. What about the other storms, he thinks. Sure there weren’t many, but they existed.

“It’s a silly thing to be afraid of.”

“Being afraid isn’t silly, Uncle Steve,” says Grace, crawling up onto the bed on Steve’s other side and rubbing a small, gentle hand over his shoulders. “Mom says only people who are stupid are never afraid and that people are the bravest when they’re scared. And you’re the bravest man I know after Danno.”

Danny smiles at his daughter, leaning over Steve to kiss her cheek. She somehow knows exactly what to say and sometimes he’s still amazed that he and Rachel didn’t totally fuck up raising her.

“Grace is right,” he adds, his thumb stroking the hair away from Steve’s forehead. It’s gotten longer in recent months, a fact Danny hasn’t missed in his less innocent fantasies. One of these days he’s going to make a move or figure out how the hell to move on.

They sit for a few minutes, both Williamses offering their versions of comfort to Steve, but each thunderclap has Steve shying away and burrowing back under his blankets. Danny sighs, unsure of how to help, when Grace sits up on her knees and leans over to whisper in his ear. He nods when she’s done, pulling his hand away from Steve. “Gracie’s going to keep you company for a little while,” he says and considers it a mark of how out of it Steve is that there’s no argument.

Danny suspects this is a lingering childhood fear and since Steve was sent away as a child, he never really got over it. Steve’s general attitude about all things Navy is to fear nothing, so Danny’s betting its the fact that life is calm and Steve can’t escape his fears by throwing himself out of a plane that has Steve reacting more viscerally to the storm.

~

Over the next hour, Danny works steadily on Grace’s plan. He mixes the ingredients for thunder cake, letting it bake in the oven while he listens to Grace talk quietly to Steve in the other room. A couple times he slips down the hall to check on them, but each time Grace shoos him away. Steve dozes fitfully during the hour and it seems not much is helping.

While the cake’s baking, Danny digs out all the blankets and pillows he can find, starting on the other half of Grace’s instructions. Once everything is done, he makes his way back down the hall, giving his daughter a nod.

“C’mon Uncle Steve,” says Grace. “We’re going into the living room now.”

“I’m fine here, Gracie,” replies Steve, the first full sentence Danny has heard from him all morning.

Grace shoves at him just a little bit. “Danno’s been working hard and he has a surprise. You’ll make him sad if you don’t look. And I know you don’t like it when Danno’s sad.”

Danny would be surprised at his daughter’s perceptiveness, but he stopped thinking that way when six months ago she informed him that when he was ready to marry Uncle Steve, she hoped he’d move into the beach house and not make Steve fit in the little apartment.

Steve grumbles at them but emerges from bed clad in sweats and a t-shirt. It’s his bare feet that make Danny sigh at him, wanting to protect Steve from the entire rest of the world.

The sight of the living room makes Steve pause, which, fair enough, but Danny reaches out for Steve’s free hand, lacing their fingers together and tugging him along. The blanket fort Danny created commands a large corner of the room. He went all out, flipping furniture over to create two other walls, using lamps to create his blanket ceiling, and piling all the pillows and blankets he had left on the ground and against the walls to create a ridiculously comfy nest. There’s a little tv tray just inside the fort with slices of cake and copper mugs filled with milk, just the way he and Grace have always enjoyed it.

“Thunder doesn’t have to mean scary, Uncle Steve,” explains Grace as Steve follows them both into the fort. Danny flicks the light off on the wall before he lets the blanket door fall behind him, the fort only lit by a few battery-powered lanterns now. He squirms his way into the corner, stretching out his bad knee and pulling Steve into his side.

Grace brings the tray over as she continues, handing a plate and mug to both of them. “I used to think storms were scary when I was little. Then Danno read me the thunder cake story and we made a fort like this one. Now thunder means special Grace and Danno time.”

“I don’t want to interrupt your time with Danno.”

“But you’re special too,” insists Grace, giving Steve her patented ‘why are grownups so dumb’ look. “Right Danno?”

“Right monkey,” answers Danny. He looks right at Steve as he says it though, for once letting all of his feelings show through. “Very special.” The look of surprise on Steve’s face is just absurd in his opinion. “Oh don’t give me that look babe. You know damn well you’re special to me. Eat your cake.”

Steve looks at the plate in his hand and back at Danny, seemingly still bewildered.

Danny takes a second to marvel at the dork he’s in love with, tilting Steve’s head up towards him and leaning in for a very light kiss. “Like my very smart daughter told you, its okay to be scared. But I’ll always be here with you when you are.”

“Danny,” says Steve softly, huskily, and Danny thinks its a very good thing that Grace won’t be around tomorrow night. He picks up a bite of cake on his fork, feeding it to Steve, and Steve takes the bite slowly, ever never leaving Danny’s. Danny kisses him again, still chaste, now tasting the hint of chocolate and strawberry.

“I’m going to read the thunder cake story,” explains Grace, “while you and Danno eat your cake. Then we play games in the fort until the storm stops.”

“Okay,” agrees Steve. He still seems a little shaken to Danny, and he trembles through a few more thunderstorms, but by the time the food is gone and Grace has finished the story, the light is back in his eyes.

They play cards for an hour, Grace winning absurd promises and IOUs when she hustles Steve at poker, and as the storm finally clears, Danny knows their mission was a success. Grace is reading another story in a quiet voice when Steve lets out a soft snore and his head falls from Danny’s shoulder to his chest.

“Looks like the thunder cake method worked again,” says Danny to Grace.

“Duh Danno.”

“Duh Danno?”

“Thunder cake always works,” she states firmly.

“And why is that?” teases Danny.

“Because you have to make it for people you love,” says Grace with a hug. “So it can never fail.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thunder Cake recipe: http://www.patriciapolacco.com/participation/kidstalk/questions_week/week_3/cake_recipe.html
> 
> Talk to me on tumblr! I'm onlymystories.tumblr.com.


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